Kurt Cobain Royalty Check Found in Record Store

A royalty check for $26.57 payable to Kurt Cobain, and dated months before Nirvana became massive with the release of Nevermind, was discovered in a Seattle record store this week.

Staff at Easy Street Records found the item among a collection that had been purchased in the ‘90s. The Chemical Bank check from the BMI was made out to “Kurt D Cobain” at an address in Olympia, Wash.

“We just found it … or should say noticed it,” store owner Matt Vaughan told NME, explaining that the collection also included a number of Nirvana tour itineraries. “We looked through ‘em a little, but just put ‘em in storage. Seemed like every band in Seattle had tour itinerary books … wasn’t uncommon to run across one.”

He also found a money order payable to Cobain’s landlord, a backstage pass and a doctor’s bill. NME noted that the check was worth about $50 at current values. “We’re guessing the next royalty checks were a bit larger,” Easy Street Records noted in an Instagram post that included a photo of the check.

Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl recently recalled suffering anxiety attacks before the rising-star band played its first large-scale festival appearance in England in 1991.

"I just couldn’t imagine 35,000 people getting together to see bands like Mudhoney or Nirvana," the Foo Fighters leader said. "It just didn’t happen in America. … I was fucking terrified. I would wake up every morning in this panic attack in a fit of anxiety. …When we got there that day, I realized how big it really was.”